


Get Well Soon - I Mean, I Despise You

by batterwitch_dumb_basses



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-30 05:19:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3924352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batterwitch_dumb_basses/pseuds/batterwitch_dumb_basses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eridan gets sick from playing in the snow with Gamzee. Which means Karkat and Sollux are now taking care of him. <br/>Fantastic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Karkat glared at Eridan, whose gills were as flushed as his nose, flittering every time the seadweller sniffled unhappily, coughs occasionally punctuating the gross snotty sounds.  
"So, enlighten me, exactly where along the line of 'you have a cold, rest' did you hear 'go out frolicking in the fucking snow, because that always helps!', Eridan?"  
"B-but snow-w, Kar! Snoow-w-w-w!" he protested weakly, snuffling again. "Fluffy snow-w!"  
"I don't give a fuck how fluffy it was, Eridan! Honestly, did you look at that and think it was a stupendous idea, you moron?!" Karkat tucked the blanket back around his friend. "Kanaya's going spare, you idiot, Feferi had to be persuaded from coming and ranting at you and I'm pretty sure that while Sollux is ignorant of any illness at all locked up in the computer lab like he is, at least Kanaya will come and fuss over you, until about three fucking weeks after you're better. I mean it, fish lips. You shouldn't make your diamond worry like this!"  
At that point Eridan went a very bright purple, muttering something about 'yeah, got a surprise there for you,' which only registered about three minutes later in Karkat's mind.  
"Eridan, what the fuck does that mean?" he asked slowly, to which the flush went brighter.  
"It w-wasn't my idea, Kar, okay, it w-was Gam's! We built those w-weird snow-w people and it w-was really fun an' I newer did that before --"  
Karkat's expression grew darker and darker. "Of all the cheery, moronic - GAMZEE MAKARA, YOU MANGLED SCARECROW OF AN IDIOTIC ASSHOLE, GET YOUR CLOWN ASS IN HERE!" he howled, seething with rage, while Eridan cowered back from Karkat's anger, whimpering.  
The sound of feet slapping against the floor began echoing down the hall, and Gamzee rushed in, looking jittery and wary. "Uh, hey Karbro, how's my lil diamond doing--"  
"GAMZEE, DID YOU OR DID YOU NOT CONVINCE ERIDAN TO GO OUT INTO THE SHITSTORM OUT THERE EARLIER WHERE ALL THE COLD AS FUCK ICE CRYSTALS PILE IN CHEERFUL MOUNDS OF DEATH."  
"Well, yeah! Fishy bro was all upset, and snow is just impossible to be motherfuckin' miserable in!"  
Karkat groaned, smacking his head against the nearest wall. "You know why Fishface here was fucking miserable, Gamzee?" he asked, watching Gamzee shake his head. He felt his anger rising like a fire in his blood.  
"BECAUSE HE HAS A FUCKING COLD, YOU DOUCHEMONGERING ASSHOLE! NOW GET OUT SO I DON'T STRANGLE MY MOIRAIL!" Karkat screeched, Eridan jumping and whimpering at the sound, earfins flattening against his neck as Gamzee ran for it.  
“AND DON’T CATCH A FUCKING COLD!” he howled after him.

 

 

====>  
Gamzee sighed as he lay on his back in the lab, and Sollux rolled his eyes.  
"The fuck'th up with you?" he asked, and Gamzee rolled over.  
"Karbro's all up and angry with me...." he said mournfully, sighing again. "Ain't my fault some fun's dangerous...."  
"Aw, he'll get over it, GZ. He can't thtay mad forever." Sollux grinned at the Capricorn, who shook his head.  
"Nah, I all up and made fishbro more sick, cause lil fishy ain't ever seen snow proper up close, and I didn't know he was sick, so we went out and he's lookin' something awful."  
Sollux nearly dropped the mouse, and whipped round again. "ED'th thick?"  
"Yeah, he had a cold and then I didn't know so we went out to have a snowball fight and all. He ain't a bad shot but he's a pretty bad snowball maker."  
"No, no. He'th really thick?" Sollux began sparking. "Thhit! I thought you fucking coldbloodth have a better immune thythtem than motht people!"  
"Woah, calm down! He's gonna be fine - just, I asked Kansis real quick, so she don't get all angry, and she said Eribro is normally real immune, but he gets cold easy and he can't really be out in cold an' all, being a seadweller. Explains why he never been near snow much." Gamzee looked up at Sollux, before blinking as Sollux ran out of the room, sparks lighting up the corridor.  
“What’s all up in his grill?”  
====>  
When the game had ended, everyone had been resurrected - the Lusii were in rooms below the huge construct that housed them (with the exception of Gl'Gloyb and Spidermom, much to Feferi's distress and Vriska's visible relief, until Kanaya pointed out that it would have been dangerous to have a horrorterror on this new planet.) Instead, thanks to money not being a problem (boon dollars were the currency here, after all) they had got Feferi an aquarium tank the size of a small house, filled with fish. A few other pets were kept, as the large house the meteor had turned into was pretty damn big. Thus, they could also have their own set of rooms. 

Eridan's rooms had been made to suit him. A small tank of fish and a small tank of seahorses flanked the doors of his main room, and purple covered almost everything. Bookcases towered over everything, with ladders nearby, and little fantasy figurines could be seen here and there, including one of his old wizard statues. Sollux stormed through with no care of this, throwing open the door to Eridan's bedroom, where Karkat stood with his hands on his hips.  
"Could you be any louder?" he hissed, and something about him looked so worried that Sollux felt a chord of fear strike in his heart. Surely it couldn’t be that bad?  
"GZ thaid Eridan wath thick."  
"He's been ill for two weeks. But yes, he happens to be worse now, and he passed out and into some bullshit fever hibernation after Gamzee left." Karkat moved aside to reveal Eridan lying on the sofa wrapped in blankets, hair plastered against his forehead and face and fins flushed. "I....I've messaged Kanaya, and at this moment all we can do is wait for it to pass. But....Fuck, if someone's sick, definitely, act like a charging hidebeast, throwing noise into the atmosphere of germs. That cures all headaches! Well done, Dr Captor, another patient dead."  
Sollux felt his cheeks burn yellow. "Look, KK--"  
"Sollux. I can't get mad at the person whose fault this is properly - or rather people - because one of them has gone into an almost coma and the other is my Moirail. But if you do that again, I can get mad at you, and if you don't fuck off back out of the place you probably came to with the intention of laughing at Eridan, I will definitely get mad at you. Go. Get out. Shift it." He pushed Sollux towards the main door, slamming it after him.  
Shit.  
That had been terrifying to see. Eridan looked a few degrees away from death, and Karkat had actually been concerned for the fish douche.  
And that was the problem. Karkat's normal concern was shouting at people, but he actually looked very worried. That was the problem with only having one person from each caste on the meteor – only Kanaya really knew much about anatomy. Shit.  
He sighed and wandered off. He wanted to make something to say ‘Get Well Soon’, but what the fuck was he meant to do for that? Anyway, Eridan would probably sneer at it or something like that, instead of being grateful like a normal person. He growled at the thought and smelt burning, looking in horror down at the carpet where a scorch mark had burnt itself. Shit.  
Shit.  
Double shit.  
He should probably mend the carpet first.


	2. Chapter 2

To see Eridan so ill was truly terrifying to Karkat. Not just because he looked ill, or wasn’t moving, or even that he had a fever, oh, no. More because Eridan, in all his feverish glory, was crying and talking, clearly on another plane of reality altogether, apologising to the lusii and wailing softly, talking as if he were talking to Dualscar, saying he was a fuck up, and flinching like the hallucinated figure he was so very clearly seeing had lunged to hit him. Other times, he shook, whimpering not to be hurt, and then at some points he would laugh, high and giggly, saying that everything was glittering and sugary, making some very uncomfortable comments whenever Karkat went near him, like a trickster might. He’d complain about everything being drab, and his laughter would spike up and then he’d freeze, starting to cry, apologising over and over again or relive memories. Mostly, that was simultaneous.

Kanaya had told him firmly that the fever would break, and to keep Eridan drinking water, but Eridan would flare his gills whenever the water was drunk, letting it slip down his neck and wailing and whimpering about being drowned by force. Thin trickles of cold water down his torso seemed to sooth him, though, and Karkat kept him drinking it, feeling awful every time that the purple tears slipped down his friend’s cheeks.

Currently the fever had brought another round of Dualscar back, and Eridan was muttering quietly.

“Don’t deserwe to call myself your name, no, don’t don’t hurt me, I tried to keep her safe, I, I fucked up, I don’t know-w w-what to do, they expect me to know-w an’ I don’t hawe a clue w-what to do…I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, no!” He shrank back, and Karkat was suddenly glad that Eridan had been asleep when Sollux had visited. True to the form of these strange cycles, Eridan slumped suddenly, fast asleep, but something was a little different – he was sweating as much as Equius might in a room full of horse statues, and Karkat hurried over to find that his friend’s forehead was as cold as it might otherwise be, and that Eridan appeared to be sleeping naturally, almost peacefully.

 

 

carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]

CG: OKAY I THINK HIS FEVER FINALLY FUCKING BROKE, HE JUST STARTED SWEATING REALLY BADLY

GA: Well That Is Good And To Be Honest About Time Too

CG: IS HE LIKELY TO HAVE THIS HAPPEN AGAIN

CG: BECAUSE I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE SOME SEMBLANCE OF A FUCKING WARNING IF SO BECAUSE THAT WAS HONESTLY VERY TERRIFYING

CG: AT ONE POINT HE STARTED MUTTERING ABOUT HOW HE HAD TO DO THIS EVEN THOUGH IT’S PAINFUL BECAUSE IT’S TRADITION AND BRINGING HIS FIST DOWN CAREFULLY ON HIS BACK LIKE IT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD. INITIALLY, I DID NOT KNOW HOW SEADWELLERS BEND. THEY ARE DOUBLE JOINTED, APPARENTLY.

CG: I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THAT WAS ABOUT, BUT THE SCARIEST SHIT WAS WHEN HE ACTED LIKE HIS ANCESTOR WAS IN THE ROOM AND TRYING TO ATTACK HIM

GA: Well I Have My Own Theory About The Back Thing I Think He Has Traditional Tattoos

GA: However I Did Not Know He Had Done This Himself

GA: Which Probably Means It Is The Really Traditional Poisonous Ink Kind

CG: CRAP ON A CRACKER OF SHIT.

CG: ARE YOU TELLING ME HE STABBED HIMSELF FULL OF LUSUS POISON.

GA: It Would Appear So

GA: The Dualscar Thing Is Very Worrying

GA: I Will Send Porrim To Break The News To Cronus That He May Not Be Visiting For A While

CG: WHY

CG: I MEAN I AM NOT COMPLAINING THAT I DON’T HAVE TO DEAL WITH THAT AMPORA

CG: BUT WHY

GA: Well

GA: To Answer Your Earlier Question Given That Violetbloods Are More Delicate Than Tyrians Eridan Is Likely To Have This Happen Again

GA: A Recurring Fever Until He Gets Better

GA: He Needs To Rest Up

GA: And This Will Take Up A Lot Of Our Time Nursing Him

GA: Cronus Would Be A Hassle To Take Care Of If He Did Get Infected

GA: And If Eridan Has Another Fever And Mistakes Cronus For Dualscar It Would Help Things Not One Bit

CG: AND BY OUR TIME YOU MEAN MY FUCKING TIME GIVEN THAT YOU AND ERIDAN HAVE THIS STRANGE THING CALLED YOU KILLED EACH OTHER AND HE IS FUCKING TERRIFIED OF YOU EVEN WHEN NOT RIDDLED WITH SICKNESS LIKE A HOSPITAL OF PLAGUE

GA: Your Metaphor Slipped

GA: But Unless We Can Get Someone Else To Take Care Of Him Who Promises Not To Harm Him You Are The Nurse

GA: It Is You

GA: Postscript Do Not Believe Vriska If For Some Reason She Says She Will Help

CG: OBVIOUSLY.

CG: IF ANYONE VOLUNTEERS AS NURSE THEN SEND THEM DOWN HERE.

GA: Feferi Has Asked If You Are Taking Care Of The Fish

CG: YES. SHE SENT ME A LONG MESSAGE ON HOW TO.

CG: ONE OF THE THINGS SHE SHOULD KNOW IS THAT I DO EVENTUALLY READ ALL MY MESSAGES.

CG: I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF ERIDAN, AND HIS PETS. THIS IS NOT SUCH AN ENJOYABLE THING.

CG: AND I DON’T WANT GAMZEE GETTING A COLD, AND ESPECIALLY NOT THIS ONE. SO I CAN’T SEE HIM UNTIL I AM NON CONTAGIOUS. HE’S NEXT TO ERIDAN ON THE SPECTRUM SO IT’S NOT TOO FAR OF A STRETCH TO THINK THAT HE MIGHT CATCH IT.

CG: IF HE DOES CATCH IT HE’S COMING TO THIS ROOM SO I CAN TAKE CARE OF IT.

GA: Sollux Asks What Needs Doing

GA: He Is Rather Rudely Looking Over My Shoulder

CG: TELL HIM THAT FUCK NO HE IS NOT ALLOWED TO HELP

CG: IF HE THINKS HE’S COMING HERE AGAIN HE’S A STUPID PERSON

CG: THE LAST THING ERIDAN NEEDS AT THIS POINT IN TIME IS FOR SOLLUX TO TELL HIM HOW PATHETIC HE LOOKS

GA: Sollux Is Calling You An Interesting Variety Of Names

CG: HANG ON, THE IDIOT ONE IS PESTERING ME.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] cease trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]

twinArmegeddons [TA] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

CG: NO

CG: NO, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HELP.

CG: I CANNOT SEE YOU BEING A GOOD NURSE, CAPTOR.

CG: YOU LACK THE KIND AND CARING HEART NECESSARY TO PUT UP WITH THIS SHIT.

TA: that wa2 blunt

CG: I’VE BEEN BABYSITTING ERIDAN AND I HAD TO DEAL WITH HIM HALLUCINATING.

CG: I WAS ALL PREPARED FOR THAT FUCKER TO GET VIOLENT LIKE THEY TELL YOU HIGHBLOODS DO WHEN SICK, BUT NO!

CG: SCARED AND UNHAPPY IS HE.

TA: KK ii give you my word that ii am tryiing to help

TA: look iif ii 2uck at iit ii’ll make 2ure to giive you a copy of that tran2lated project diiva ii’m workiing on

TA: complete wiith all the level2

CG: DAMMIT.

CG: CURSE YOU, DAVE STRIDER. CURSE YOU AND YOUR ACT OF GETTING ME HOOKED ON VOCALOID.

CG: YOU GET A TWO DAY TRIAL, ASSCLOWN. GET YOUR SKINNY BACKSIDE DOWN HERE, HE’S ASLEEP WITH NO FEVER.

CG: IF HE HATES YOU, I MIGHT RECONSIDER.

TA: okay good cau2e ii am actually kiind of worried about him

CG: I SCREENSHOTTED THAT FOR LATER USE.

TA: you are 2uch an a22hole

CG: I’M TIRED AND I THINK IT’S FUNNY

CG: I’LL TELL KANAYA.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased trolling twinArmegeddons [TA]

carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]

CG: HE’S SERIOUS, KANAYA.

GA: He Is Smirking

CG: IS HE SHIFTING HIS BUTT DOWN HERE?

GA: He Is Now

CG: WHAT KEY DID YOU THROW AT HIM?

GA: I Threw A Pillow At Him

GA: He Is In My Rooms Or Rather He Was

CG: I GUESSED.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]

 

Eridan was sound asleep as Karkat replaced his pillow and duvet with others he’d found rolled up in a closet. He made a happy noise as Karkat carefully tucked him in, and the shorter troll sighed.

“Damnit, you should stop being this pathetic, Eridan.” He looked up as Sollux walked into the more enclosed room, and sighed.

“First job, go get these washed. Just bung them in the machine, okay?” He threw the dirty sheets and pillow at Sollux, whose nose wrinkled for a minute, psionics catching them with ease.

“What the hell ith the thmell?” he asked slowly, and Karkat shrugged.

“Eridan sweating a fever out. You wanted to do this, you do as I say, and don’t complain like an idiot.” Karkat tucked Eridan in more securely, before shuddering. “I’m the one who has to get him to change out of the sweaty and gross things he’s currently attired in, Captor.”

“Uh. Yeah. I’m going to go put thethe in the wathhing machine while you do your thing. Yeah.” Sollux backed out of the room quickly, grumbling loudly, while Karkat went to the chest of drawers, pulling out some clownfish patterned pyjamas and heading back to where Eridan lay in the newly made bed.

He undid the shirt’s buttons carefully, eyes widening at seeing not only the gills on his sides, but also the scattering of wave patterns in black that decorated his skin at the side. He carefully moved Eridan to sit up, the seadweller still sleeping the sleep of the infected, removing the shirt and seeing a glint in the gills as Eridan breathed, peering to see a couple of small ring piercings in his side gills, and following the wave patterns around to see a big image on Eridan’s back – a shipwreck on the rocks, in a storm. He looked closer, seeing it was made up on tiny little dots, and felt suddenly sick to the stomach as he put the new pyjama top over the tattoo, buttoning it up and shaking Eridan awake, the other blinking blearily at him.

“Change your pajama trousers, douchefins.” He turned his back as shuffling sounds indicated Eridan doing as he was told.

“Thanks…” Eridan murmured, flinging the other pyjama trousers away to the floor, yawning as he curled up again, closing his eyes and snuggling into the duvet. Karkat turned around, sighing at the image.

Pierced gills and tattoos? Did Eridan not care that it wasn’t legal for him to have pulled that shit? You weren’t allowed to do anything like that until you at least hit nine sweeps. Even the thought of how long the art piece on Eridan’s back and sides must have taken made him want to retch.

And what idiot puts poison willingly into their skin? He just hoped Sollux didn’t see it. He himself might have the good presence of mind not to say anything to someone who had made that kind of choice, but Sollux could be an idiot sometimes.

Right on cue, the door slammed open, and Sollux stormed in.

“I had to get Lalonde the Thnarky to thhow me how to uthe that thtupid contraption!” Sollux hissed, before looking over at Eridan and staring.

“KK, he thrunk…” He peered at Eridan, and Karkat looked at him with all the contempt he could manage.

“He hasn’t shrunk, you stupid nookstain, he’s not got his cape. Besides, he’s taller than me.” Honestly, Sollux could be such a bratty little asshole sometimes.

“No, I know you’re a midget, KK, but he’th thhorter, I’m thure of it.” Sollux reached out to take the blanket away, and Karkat smacked his hand.

“You are being so very unhelpful I cannot even conjure up imagery to describe your unreachable level of a lack of capacity to be helpful. Words have literally fucking failed me, Captor! Do you need me to spell it out for you? Do not take the blanket away from the SICK PERSON!” He growled low in his throat and Sollux looked surprised before letting out a strangled sound and sitting down.

“Okay, crap, thorry, I wathn’t thinking!” he whined, and Karkat glared at him.

“Then you need to start! He isn’t going to bite your hand off or be obnoxious – he’s asleep! He is literally so tired he cannot hold onto consciousness, so stop being such an irritating little lump of gloop spat out by the Mother Grub and start actually being helpful, Captor, or we are going to have a little problem called ‘Me Punching You In The Bulge’, capisce?” He stuck a finger close to Sollux’ face, and the other nodded slowly.

“I’ll do what you tell me, KK. I’m thorry, really, I jutht…It’th not like him. It’th like he’th not here.”

“Well, my second command to you is not to wake him up from Dreamland, okay? Leave him asleep. I had to wake him up to put his pyjama trousers on, and he just needs to rest. Mother Grub knows that he needs it, if what Kanaya said about recurring fevers is true.” Karkat ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

“Okay…What elthe?” Sollux asked quietly, looking over at Eridan.

“Don’t go near Feferi until you’ve had a hot shower and changed your clothes. It would really suck to turn Eridan’s rooms into the infirmary…Hey, if you don’t do anything stupid, I’m going to have a shower and change my clothes. I need to check Gamzee for symptons of Eridan’s illness, okay?”

Sollux nodded, looking at Eridan in that odd, unhappy way, and Karkat sighed as he headed to the clean pile of clothes Kanaya had brought him. He’d need to bring down pajamas and clothes for Sollux too, although finding anything in that tip Sollux dared call his room might be something of a damn challenge. His first mission was Gamzee though. The thought of Gamzee being anywhere near this sick made his blood pumper clench in worry.


	3. Chapter 3

Gamzee snuffled slightly, and held Karkat close jealously, nuzzling into his hair, and purring loudly, as Karkat relaxed into him, cuddling him close inside his rooms. Everything in this room seemed to have polka dots decorating it, and it was easy to get dizzy if you weren’t used to it. Gamzee _was_ snuffling, though, and Karkat was worried he might have caught a cold, although hopefully not the awful sickness Eridan had. He would have been as miserable as Eridan had been when he staggered to lunch after playing in the snow with Gamzee and promptly fell down to the floor without his knees even bending.

Gamzee was just being clingy. He was quite obviously ill, given how much he was cuddling Karkat - there were different qualities to his hugs and cuddles, and this one was like he was trying to use himself to imprint his mark on Karkat. He was practically giving off tangible diamonds.

“You fucking useless idiot…” Karkat nuzzled him very softly. “You know, you could have told me that you fucking felt ill.”

“Take me down to the sick room, then, diamond.” Gamzee nuzzled him, and Karkat felt his heart clench.

“Are you saying you’re wanting to get as sick as Eridan, Gamzee?” he asked, soft, voice betraying the emotion he felt at the idea. Gamzee shook his head.

“Keep me in his seahorse room, bro. I know you are all up and only looking after him ‘cause you have to. Solbro’s helping you. Look after me?” His voice was pleading, and Karkat’s blood pumper clenched. Gamzee knew how much it must tempt Karkat sorely to bring him down to the sick room. To Eridan’s rooms, to look after him. He almost gasped at the sharp feeling it created within him.

“I…want to. You know I can’t, don’t you? You’re not that ill, Gamzee. And don’t even try saying that you could be. It would break my heart. It’s breaking my heart.” He clutched him close and heard the soft, throaty chuckle of Gamzee’s, heart clenching again. There was a strange tone to it that wasn’t usually there. Gamzee was definitely sick.

“Diamonds can’t all up and shatter, best of bros.” Gamzee nosed at Karkat’s neck softly. “You don’t want me to get as sick. So you’re waitin’ until I feel worse. So I don’t up and get what that little fishbrother of ours went and caught. Then you’ll bring me down to the rooms. You know how much I’ll up and want you by my side.”

Karkat clutched at him, and smiled softly through his feeling of wanting to cry. “You aren’t blameless in this, Gamzee. But…oh, damn it. You _do_ understand, you big lug. You’re not going to get that awful bug. He’s got fevers, Gamzee. I expect Sollux to panic and call me any minute now.” The thought of Gamzee having those terrors, those fevers, made his heart ache all the more.

“Ain’t anyone’s time now but ours, Karbro.” Another little nuzzle to his neck and Karkat felt himself begin to cry, as Gamzee continued to speak. “I got my understanding on. You need to do this. And you want to do what I say, don’t you?”

“Fuck it. Fuck it in every way possible, Gamzee, you knew I would even before you suggested it.” He tugged Gamzee closer. “If you have the same thing as Eridan I will end you, clear?”

Gamzee brushed his tears away with his thumb, cuddling Karkat closer and purring his rattling purr that made Karkat feel cared for, feel coddled and wanted. Karkat nuzzling closer to Gamzee immediately.

“Nah, you won’t.” He chuckled and began to cough, Karkat crooning as he rubbed Gamzee’s back to help.

 

====>

Sollux watched Eridan nervously, laptop on his knees as he tried to code something he was making for Feferi’s wriggling day, two months away. A code that when linked up with a robot would automatically feed her fish and check the tank temperature.

Eridan was still asleep, seemingly peacefully, but every now and then his face would crumple, his hand stretch out and clench. He’d cry, and then become still and peaceful once more.

Sollux couldn’t help but wonder how many times Eridan had made that exact face every time Feferi brushed him off or someone taunted him. Eridan had been an asshole. But now, when Sollux pictured him, he saw him without his cape. Just a kid trying not to be alone, for fuck’s sake. A kid equating relationships to not being alone. The majority of his thoughts would try and brush that thought away, try and say that Eridan was a self-serving asshole who made Feferi upset, who hit on everyone, who was a raging asshole who was also against any caste below Gamzee’s.

And then that bit of him that made him feel awful would start to debate that again – _Yes, but now look at him. Look at him lying there. Is he really the monster I thought he was?_

_He blinded me._

_I would have killed him._

_He killed Feferi and Kanaya and he destroyed our only hope._

_Other people were murderers. I can forgive them. Everyone just calls it highblood rage._

_He’s an asshole._

_So am I._

Trying to make his brain cut this crap wasn’t working when he could see Eridan crying in his sleep. He’d loved provoking Eridan, because he always fought back. It was a sick thrill whenever he managed to shove him, see him in his cape stumbling.

And now, without his cape, it was easy to see he’d just stumbled, just been shoved. Somehow, Eridan had tricked everyone, with his cape and his scarf and his way of looking down his nose, into believing he was actually taller than he was.

Why was it so damn hard to decide what he thought of Eridan? He couldn’t agree with his decision either way. Maybe Eridan was still a maddened idiot. He groaned as he tried to get into the coding further, and growled as he heard someone hurtling along the corridor, stomping up and down. Did they somehow not know that he was sick?

Probably they didn’t care. Eridan turned suddenly in his sleep and cried out, Sollux nearly dropping the laptop as he hurried over, to check his forehead. Wasn’t he a bit warmer? Seadwellers were all so cold blooded. It was easy to see how Eridan had succumbed to the sickness, what with him being out in the snow like an idiot. But…He’d never seen snow before, according to Gamzee.

And that was another thing. Since when were Gamzee and Eridan best buddies? Sure, they knew each other from how close their hives were to each other, and how Eridan had had that one meltdown when Gamzee tried to throw his rubbish out of the window. Pollution on Alternia had been worse than it had been back on Earth. Feferi had fallen out with him over the meltdown, but Gamzee and him had apparently been talking since then. Gamzee sure was a glutton for punishment if he put up with Eridan’s occasional meltdowns. But at least none of them would end in death or blindness this time.

He tried to feel Eridan’s forehead with his other hand, and swore as Eridan tugged him close, arms wrapping around him like a clingy little wiggler. Fuck this.

He tried to push him away, finding it surprisingly easy and then feeling absolutely horrible when Eridan curled in on himself, eyes opening blearily and staring at Sollux. Oh, crap.

“W-what are you doin’ here?” he asked, blearily. He looked around. “Ain’t…don’t look right…” he muttered to himself, and looked around. “This…ain’t my bubble?” He looked down at himself, confused by the pyjamas as he tried to stand up.

“Eridan, go the fuck back to bed.” He shoved him to lie down, feeling even more horrible as Eridan blindly obeyed, lying down.

“W-where’s Dualscar?” he mumbled sleepily, cuddling back into the quilt. “Told me not to leawe…” His eyes slid shut and Sollux slid to sit down by the bed. He didn’t feel like coding.

How sick could someone get? Seadwellers were meant to be more resilient. They were the pride of the Empress. Captains of most of the fleet. Deadly in the water.

And here was this idiot getting into this state because of some virus. He rubbed at his temples, and looked back at Eridan, who looked…

Odd. He was smiling softly in his sleep, as though he was having a happy dream. Sollux wondered what he was dreaming of. Probably a nicer time. Eridan flung himself on his front suddenly, arm batting about.

What the fuck. This was next level bullshit. It was alright for KK, who got to go and snuggle with his moirail while Sollux had to deal with Eridan and all this shit.

Eridan opened his eyes, and looked at Sollux like he didn’t recognise him. “Napoleon ain’t here. W-where is he?” He narrowed his eyes. “Did you steal him?”

“Who the fuck ith Napoleon?” Sollux asked slowly, and Eridan waved an arm expansively, as though Napoleon could not be defined.

“The seahorse. Surely you’we seen him. Unless he’s still in that box. He probably is. I…There’s this utter prick w-who w-won’t let me out of bed. Guy called Sollux. And Kar w-won’t let me out either. I remember. Napoleon’ll be in the pile.” Eridan rolled around slightly. “I keep hawin’ w-weird dreams about shit, though. It’s…last thing I remember is Kar yellin’ at Gam... Before that I w-was in the snow, an’ it w-was all cold an’ w-weird. I lowed it.” He seemed pretty much completely out of it. Sollux gritted his teeth and went over to the weird little pile. Oh, crap. No. This was a pathetic little pile that tugged at the strings of his blood biscuit.

A couple of capes were flung over three cushions, and a crushed floppy wizard hat. Between the cushions was a grubby little lusus toy, a seahorse with purple eyes that looked like it had been well loved. It smelt of the sea when he picked it up, staring at it.

No, this was just not fucking fair. Eridan was a prick, who should not have a poorly constructed pile that made him look absolutely lonely and upset and…

He turned around, seeing Eridan look at him with wide, wide eyes, hands held out. He flung Napoleon at him, and the seadweller almost caught him, grabbing the toy after it fell and curling up around it like a newly pupated wiggler. Fucking hell dammit.

He sat down with his laptop on the other side of the room again, playing some mindless candy game he’d lifted from John’s computer, determined to ignore Eridan, who looked something like a pill bug at the moment as he slept. Idiot had not even pulled the blankets back over himself.

He tried to ignore the fact that the blankets weren’t pulled over for all of five minutes before tugging them up over the sleeping seadweller. Eridan was a pain in the ass, alright, but…he wasn’t exactly the person Sollux had been used to thinking of him as. If he had, of course, ever been. One of the things that annoyed Sollux about people was the way they were not the person you thought of them as, not all the time. For instance, Feferi. He’d liked to think of her as the cute and sweet and good princess, and then she had turned out to be…Cute, and sweet, and giggly, and fun. But also pampered. A little spoilt. She was still a good person, but she was ignorant occasionally. She thought of the world like she wanted it to be, not how it really was.

Eridan, of all people, should have had the decency to be as Sollux thought he was, not…this. He just hoped it was the effect of being sick that made him so understandable, so…pathetic and small and all that shit. He looked over at the other slowly, seeing his shirt rucked up, as Eridan wriggled slightly on the sheets, frowning to himself as he clutched Napoleon close, like he was three sweeps old. Sollux had had a plush himself, a giant purple bee, but he’d thrown it out when he’d first started having the ‘we’re grown-ups now’ phase that most people went through. He wondered what had prompted Eridan to keep his, but as he looked over at him Eridan kicked the blanket off again, shirt rucked up and the gills on his side breathed in air.

Something glinted, and Sollux peered at what appeared to be little rings in the gills on his side, staring. What the fuck?

Yep, there were gold rings in the delicate side gills, in the sensitive light violet frills. He shuffled closer to stare. About two or three that he could see on this side. Those weren’t fake ones, either. Those were honest-to-binary piercings in Eridan’s gills.

He remembered Feferi talking to him about piercings once, when he’d asked about sea dweller culture.

“They’re decoration!” she had said. “It’s eel-y hard to find someone who will pierce gills, though. Earfins are easy, but painful. Not like land dweller ears. But gills get fin-fected so easily you can be in really bad pain for days! It’s a sign of courage. But when you pierce gills, we get a little bit….well, feral. Loopy. It’s the pain, sets off instinct. So some pierce themselves, but you’re not o-fish-eel-y allowed to do it until you’re spine sweeps! But some people pull rank to get it done…And then things can go reel wrong. Pain is hard to deal with, you sea? And hormones that aren’t settled make the whole fin worse than ever.” She’d waved a hand imperiously. “I would have abo-fished all the black market piercing when I was Empress.”

 

It was, he remembered, always the ‘when’ that Feferi talked about. As though she would have no doubt been Empress. However, he was pretty sure she’d never believed she would win the fight if she challenged the Empress.

And he believed that she didn’t know jack shit about Eridan’s piercings.                She clearly didn’t approve of the underage piercings. Potentially, they could have been done in the dreambubbles, but…

But he had a feeling that these were older than that. It would make sense, given that Feferi had told him that somewhere around four or five sweeps old Eridan had stopped letting her hug him when they met up. It was probably also sometime around Vriska and Eridan’s little tryst, which had really not been good at all from what he had heard. Vriska was a true blue bitch, from his point of view. Still, his heart was beating fast as he kept staring in horror at the piercings. If he was correct, and Eridan had had these done at five, or even worse, _four_ sweeps, that was hideously underage and legality was not even involved. But seadwellers could pull rank like nobody’s business, and Sollux could not keep from staring at the flaring gills, the deep violet of the underneath. Yes, that had to have hurt. He wondered, briefly, what a feral Eridan would act like. Maybe…That would be worse than he had been on the meteor?

The meteor. It was a jumble of memories, of Feferi and the pile and existing with everyone, of Eridan baring his teeth at him every time he saw him. Platonic hate, true and very, very strong. He’d seen day by day how Eridan got worse. A sharp mess, all angles and sweeping cloaks and…

An asshole. An asshole, he’d definitely been an asshole, but take away the posturing and the cape and everything that Sollux had relied on for Eridan to be the monster he had dressed him up as in his mind, and he was a kid of six sweeps old – a highblood who had lost his moirail and flush crush, who had nothing but himself. Moirails were very important for unstable highbloods, and Eridan had been the text book definition of unstable.

And that was apparently not even him when feral. Some sick part of him wanted to see Eridan feral, wanted to see how Eridan would be if he was broken beyond repair. He shuddered even at the thought, quickly pulling the blanket back over Eridan, who was settling back into a peaceful sleep. He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

And then there was the more worrying thing beyond that stupid sadistic side of him. The fact that he really did want Eridan better, that he really was worried about the stupid idiot. It was, in fact, just like Eridan to pull the whole ‘I do w-what I w-want’ stunt. He let himself laugh slightly, picturing Eridan rolling around in the snow like a giant cat. He could imagine Eridan sneaking out with Gamzee, having a snowball fight. He wondered suddenly if Eridan had ever jumped into a leaf pile in autumn, if he’d ever wished on a dandelion clock, as the plant puffballs here were called according to Jade.

What did Eridan do for fun? What were his hobbies? He sighed and looked down at Eridan again. Did he want to know?

He’d probably find out in due course. If only the idiot would hurry up and get better…Well, actually…He looked around at the room with a little grin. He could always snoop. He walked over to the bookcase, looking at the books there. An old journal with Eridan’s sign on it, and the FLARP stamp on the spine. Oh, he knew what that was. He picked up another, which proclaimed it to be ‘The Art Of War’, and huffed, before moving a heavy tome of that weird old guy who wrote all those plays that Rose apparently adored, and blinking at seeing a handle in the bookcase. Like a handle for a sliding door. He slid it carefully, moving the rest of the history and poetry books out of the way. Poetry was a little surprise, he guessed.

He stared at the next row of books behind the doors, reaching in and pulling one out. Huh. Harry Potter? Wasn’t that the shitty wizard novel that Rose had compared Eridan to? He lifted the books of that series out carefully. Okay, not so much of a surprise, given that Eridan did like magic (he just thought it wasn’t at all real). He reached for the next one, and blinked, staring at it.

A teen novel? He flipped it, reading the back. It was called City of Bones, and it looked to Sollux’s suspicious eye like it probably involved a love triangle. Hm. He turned back to the hidden shelf and pulled out the rest of series. He knew it. Of course Eridan had the rest of the series, of course. Seriously. Each blurb got more angst-filled than the last one. Would they ever end up together? Oh no! Fucking seriously. Of course they did, otherwise there would not be multiple books where a main sub plot was _their goddamn relationship._ And everyone said literature was so great. It was always the same stories over and over.

One of the things which had made Rose so happy was that all the books that had been on Alternia and all the ones on Earth had turned up on the new planet, like they had been there forever. She’d joked about avoiding something called an ‘Alexandria disaster’.

He pulled out more novels like that. All supernatural romances or adventures. Mostly both. So that was the sort of thing that Eridan liked? He should have guessed. He reached to get the last book, something that looked big and chunky, only to find an enormous box, a glittering purple one. Huh.

It took him precisely three minutes to figure out how all the little clasps worked, pulling it open and staring at the insides. Holy fucking shit.

Inside was a great deal of make-up, more than he had ever seen in his life. Eye shadows in all colours, a selection of good lipsticks, and about all types you could get from a high end brand’s warehouse. What the hell?

What the actual hell? It was like Eridan had ordered everything from the catalogue and then decided he needed all of their stock. How all of this fitted in the box, he didn’t know. He tried to put it back, before shrugging, and taking a picture of the books and the box before replacing everything back as it was.

Why did Eridan even have all of that shit? He had to show Karkat. Maybe he’d just ordered it on a whim? He remembered that one outfit of Eridan’s in the dreambubbles. The tiny skirt and crop top had been a little shocking, but he’d brushed it off. Everyone had been wearing weird things, after all, and he remembered seeing Equius in a maid outfit. Yes, the dreambubbles had been a strange, strange time. Dark days, even.

But it itched at his brain. He really, really wanted to know why the giant box of makeup was hidden with those books. Was that the literally hidden part of Eridan? Well, who knew with that guy? Honestly. If only Eridan hadn’t fallen ill, then he could have somehow done something like made him show him.

He found himself drifting back to Eridan’s old cross-dressing outfit. It had been odd to look at, but…Maybe he still had it? A wicked grin danced on his lips, before the door slammed open, making him jump as Karkat stood there, looking slightly miserable before frowning at the white seahorse in Eridan’s arms.

“The shit? Where did he get—is that his?” The crabby little troll turned to Sollux. “What are you even doing standing there, you asshat?”

“Oh…Uh, not going through hith thtuff?” Sollux said, before smacking a hand to his head. Ah, crap. He couldn’t do sneaky.

“Sollux, what the fuck? Leave his stuff alone, you asshole. Where did he get the seahorse?” Karkat was rubbing at the bridge of his nose, looking up at Sollux with the most tired look that Sollux had ever seen outside of his own mirror after a serious coding session. “Look, Gamzee’s caught a cold, could you for once reel in your stupid ability to be the biggest asshole in the building and just try not to fuck this up? I’ve got enough on my plate without you snooping through Eridan’s shit. He’s sick, Sollux. Seriously, you have no fucking shame. Now, for the third time, where the fuck did he get the fucking seahorse that looks like it got mauled to death by a grub?”

Sollux felt his heart clench tightly as Karkat spoke. Oh, crap. Yeah, now he felt like an asshole. An asshole who stooped at nothing. Damn it all to a dark fiery place with bad internet connection.

“It was in his pile.” He regretted pointing out the pathetic little thing to Karkat in the same instant as he did so, seeing Karkat’s face fall.

“That is not a pile. Please fucking tell me that it isn’t a pile. A pile is meant to be big and comfortable. That is the fucking popped balloon of all piles. Oh, fuck. That is a pile. That is a pile, isn’t it?” Karkat raked his hands down his cheeks. “I hate all of you fuckers. This is your life’s joy, isn’t it? Making me feel like a dreadful person because you each have your own little problems that you reveal like this.” He sank to his knees. “And of fucking course it has his wriggler toy in it that he still needs. This is like the intro to a very bad pale romance novel. Let me state again how much I hate each and every one of you.”

Sollux winced. He knew exactly how much Karkat hated them all. He didn’t hate a single one in their group (except maybe Cronus, Sollux did not even know) and he worried about all of them. Well, crap.

“Look, he did wake up earlier and call me a prick…thort of…And athk for it.”

“Tell me it doesn’t have a fucking name still, Sollux. I’m begging you.” Karkat glared at him, and Sollux nodded.

“Napoleon.”

“Fuck my life.”


	4. Chapter 4

Eridan had started waking up more, irritable and trying to get out of bed, saying that he was fine and didn’t need ‘fuckin’ fussin’ ower’. Karkat had tried to shove him back into bed and then found that it had actually been a good idea to get Sollux on board with taking care of Eridan, as red and blue psionics had crackled around Eridan and shoved him back into bed, Sollux sensibly standing out of reach of Eridan’s resultant swearing and flailing.

Karkat had tidied the pile away, not being able to look at it. He was guessing that Kanaya’s pile was the one they tended to hang out on, and this one was more of a personal one. You couldn’t realistically call it a pile anyway, and what pulled at his blood pumper’s strings even more was the fact that Eridan had hid Napoleon under his pillow upon seeing the two of them, and thought that he had hidden it successfully, always moving around and protecting the little plush toy from their sight. He hadn’t gotten another fever yet, but Karkat knew it had to be only a matter of time. Sollux seemed to take Eridan’s constant insults to him as a sign that he must be better, but Karkat had a sneaking suspicion that were Eridan nigh dead he would still be telling Sollux where he could stick his ‘fuckin’ unnecessary fussin’ _and_ your bulge’ as loudly as he was doing whenever he woke up. So far, there had been no real highblood rages, only thankfully normal tantrums in which Sollux tended to be the main focus due to the aforementioned psionics that held Eridan in bed whenever he tried to get out of bed.

At the moment, Eridan was well enough to sit up in bed and read through books and such, although Karkat didn’t want him wandering around everywhere like Eridan would try to unless told that Kanaya wouldn’t like it. Sollux had rigged up a computer screen and a private chat with his own brand of firewall so that that the stupid fish and Kanaya could video chat while Eridan was in bed, propped up against pillows, and while still irritable, he was allowing Kanaya to tell him to keep his ‘stupid idiot backside’ downstairs.

“They w-want to keep me in bed, Kan!” Eridan whined loudly, and Karkat contemplated for a second whether it was good for Eridan if Karkat knocked him out with one of his own shitty books. Kanaya sighed loud enough for them to hear it, as they were currently sat outside the door to Eridan’s bedroom to give the moirails privacy (or as much as they could).

Sollux rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “Printhe Futhhybutt ith giving me the fucking mother of all headacheth.”

“Oh, Sollux! Here is your monthly newsletter, badge, and official robes, because welcome to the fucking club! This is actually better than he used to be, you know? When you were winding him up before, he would go on for actual hours and I would return with the fucking MATRIARCH of headaches.” He shuddered at the memory.

Sollux blinked and grinned somewhat slyly. “Oh, really?”

Karkat growled and sank his face into his hands. “Yes, I know how that sounds to you, but the worst part was it wasn’t even _pitch._ It was just pure loathing in the platonic sense, and then he’d wind down halfway through a seething speech, and then he’d get all weepy, and then he’d remember he no longer had a moirail to talk this over properly with, and then he’d go off on how much he was alone – not even as a ‘Kar come pap me’ thing, just like almost talking to himself and nearly crying – and then he’d go and hit on Nepeta because all he really wanted was to sit down and play tea party to make himself feel better but the dumb idiot doesn’t know how to ask someone to be friends, just thinks you have to offer them something in return.” He scrubbed at his face with a hand and looked off to the side. “And then he would go back to his room, and then you would torment him again, because that’s just how you interact sometimes, yes, I do know that, but then if he couldn’t find me because I was trying to do something actually useful, he’d go back to his room and draw up machines he would try and create to kill you. In a way, it was adorable, and in another way, pathetic, because he would always be clueless as to how to put them together, and in a third way, terrifying because that is exactly how nobody except Vriska would deal with people and she did it for kicks when she did that, and he was doing it seriously. Compared to the mess I describe, Eridan is being sweetness and light right now, and still a huge pain in the ass.”

Sollux was still blinking, and Karkat looked over at him with narrowed eyes.

“Okay, what? What’s up with you?” he asked slowly. Had he freaked him out? Was Sollux about to run screaming from the room, leaving Karkat alone with the King of Tantrums.

“I…Kind of feel bad for that. I guethh.” Sollux rubbed the back of his head and then glanced towards the door. “I altho…I don’t even know, but I thought he wath jutht a prick all the time.”

Karkat shook his head. “No, no. He can be okay. He just doesn’t get how nice works or how to say he wants to be friends. He cried in this really ugly snotty way when I said we were friends. And we are, we watch shitty wizard movies and good cinema and all that fucking friendship stuff. And then he goes out in the snow because he’s never seen it before, and passes out because he already had a fucking cold.” He grinned, and Sollux nodded slowly.

“I...think I get it. Yeah.”

“Also, he is a really good marksman, so you really better be able to use your noodle legs if he finds out that you went through his stuff like that.” Karkat waved a hand and then grinned at Sollux’ expression of panic. “I did say if he finds out. He’s not likely to.” He stood and knocked on the door.

“Fuck do you w-want?” Eridan called, and Kanaya’s voice suddenly murmured, angry and quickly, and Karkat growled through the door.

“You little shit! I _was_ going to ask if you wanted any fucking food yet, but hey, you know, now I don’t feel like it. No pop-tarts for you, you bulge-sucking mess of fever.” He motioned to Sollux to stand up, and stamped a little way away then halted. Not a second later, Eridan opened the door, clinging to it.

“W-Which pop-tarts w-would those be?” he asked, suspiciously, and Sollux felt a little like freaking out as he realised that Eridan was propping himself up with Ahab’s Crosshairs. That did not look safe – but, no, no, he could see that the safety lock was on. Good. No accidental shootings of psionics could occur. Or levelling of the house.

Or murder of psionics.

“Oh, you know, Chocolate Chip if nobody’s found my hiding place for it. Maybe even Cinnamon Roll or…” He began walking again. “Cupcake.”

Eridan began to make a nervous chittering sound, which also freaked Sollux the fuck out because, hey, who knew seadwellers could do that? It was weird, a bit creepy…

And…

It kind of made him want to pet Eridan and get him the sweets he wanted. Which actually, he thought, might be its biological purpose. Karkat looked a little torn as well as Eridan turned to him and made the chittering sound louder than before.

“Fine, quit whining and get back into bed and you might, might, _might_ get a Pop Tart. Go! Get! Sollux, help the idiot here back to his bed.” Karkat began to strip off his shirt with a growl. “I have to shower and change first so I don’t bring a contagion Pop Tart for your consumption or infect the entire fucking kitchen, and I don’t want the two of you fucking ogling me.”

Sollux ushered Eridan gently back to bed, seeing Kanaya waiting anxiously on the screen.

“Sollux? Is he alright? Eridan, are you alright?” Her hands were clasped together, moving slightly as she fought to keep her fingers from twitching. Eridan looked up softly at her.

“I keep w-worryin’ you, don’t I?” he asked, and Kanaya smiled that sweet, caring smile directly at him.

“It’s my choice to worry, but if you could not hare out of bed with quite that amount of dangerous vigour, I may be happier than I might currently say I am, and less likely to punch you in the stomach the instant you are better.” She smiled again and suddenly Sollux found that Eridan was _letting_ him help him back to bed. He removed the scary, scary gun while he had the chance, placing it back in the cabinet with the open bed by the door which Eridan had presumably got it from before moving back to tuck the covers in around Eridan, who had once again moved that stupid plush under another pillow, thinking Sollux hadn’t seen.

Stupid fish.

Kanaya cleared her throat. “Eridan, I am afraid I am late to see Rose. Would you mind my leaving you in Sollux’s hands?” Her gaze moved slowly over to Sollux with a sickeningly sugary smile. “I can assure you that _nothing will happen to you._ ”

She was glowing more brightly, and showing off her sharp teeth, and Sollux tried not to whimper for his lusus. Not that the lump of mind honey- addicted confusion could help any, but at the very least Sollux could hide behind him from Kanaya, who was suddenly _very fucking scary._

“Yeah, yeah…” he croaked. “We’re all the betht of friendth here.”

“No w-we ain’t.” Eridan sat up. “You’re a bulge.” He narrowed his eyes at Sollux, and Kanaya sighed.

“Eridan, if you start things, I cannot really say that Sollux is at fault.” She blew a kiss and then the screen went dark. Eridan huffed through his nose.

“S’true, though. You’re a bulge-blow-win’ piece a sea scum.” His glare was provoking, and Sollux forced himself not to snap back.

“Lie down, idiot. You’ll work yourthelf into a fever. Again. Thtop trying to pick a fight with me, it won’t work.” He plumped up the cushion behind him. “Thee, me being kind. And good, and all that crap. Now lie down, or you will thtay thith thick and never cuddle KN again.”

That did the trick. Eridan immediately took on a kicked woofbeast look and lay down, turning his face into the pillows and making little muffled noises that sounded like sniffling. Well, shit. Way to go, Sollux. Make the fish boy cry, that’s just great.

“Oh, thtop that. Pleathe. I jutht need you to retht and then the minute you aren’t ill you can go have a big jam with KN, okay?” He patted Eridan’s shoulder awkwardly.

The sniffling paused and Sollux relaxed for a minute, before he picked up on the sound of little hiccupping sobs. Fuck. He was the biggest asshole in the entire universe, and he had made Eridan _cry._ But according to Karkat…it wasn’t the first time he’d done that. Just the first time he’d known about it.

“It’th for your own good?” he tried, and Eridan began to wail softly. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. He’d done it now. He would be hung, draw, castrated and quartered, his blood used to dye Kanaya’s clothing.

“Look, I’m thorry, I didn’t…”

“Hurts. Warm. Too warm.” Eridan kicked at the covers ineffectively, and Sollux suddenly had a horrible thought. He sighed and sat on the bed, yanking Eridan up as softly as he could (which wasn’t admittedly very) and tested a hand against his forehead, as if the flushed cheeks weren’t enough of a sound. Warm. Too warm.

Well, shit.

“You worked yourthelf into a fever,” he informed him, and Eridan suddenly leant against him, which was really unexpected and…well, not altogether unpleasant. He opened up one arm so Eridan could rest against his shoulder. “If it maketh it better, I blame KK for making you run around after Pop Tartth.”

Eridan looked up with teary eyes and Sollux removed his glasses, putting them back on the little bedside table. “Thtop that. Crying ith only going to make me feel bad ath well, and probably make you feel worthe, you athh.”

Hah. Like he could feel any worse with a fever. But Eridan immediately tried to wipe at his tears, still snuffling.

“Sol?” he asked, quietly.

“Yeah?”

“If I die, take care of Kan for me…” he whimpered piteously, lip wobbling.

Sollux scoffed. “Like me and KK are going to let you die, you moron. KN would make thylithh clotheth from our thkin.” He laid him back down. “Tho thtop being tho melodramatic and KK will return with thweet thuthtenanthe.”

“Do…do you mean sustenance?” Eridan’s mouth twitched, and Sollux grinned back at him.

“Yeah. That _ith_ what I thaid. If you’re thtill a royal prick, it can’t be that nathty of a fever.” He dug under the pillows and stuck Napoleon in Eridan’s arms, fishing a blanket out from the pile of them draped at the foot of the bed and wrapping it around Eridan’s shoulders, watching as Eridan leant back, closing his eyes with an odd expression on his face.

Yeah, it was still weird to see him like this, so vulnerable and pretty much weak. Highbloods hardly ever looked like that, after all. On Alternia, the whole system relied on survival of the strongest, meaning that Sollux had never seen a subdued seadweller. Even Feferi had taken care to practice with her trident where everyone could see, back on the meteor. Everyone had seen Eridan as pathetic, but they had also seen him in that fight, where they had defeated the King. He had quite suddenly taken off his glasses and starting shooting shit out of the sky.

But then, he had had so much practice with the denizens of his world. Sollux, for one, had wandered into that world by mistake one time, and seen the creepy things swirling about in the air. He thought Eridan was nuts for shooting at them, but he couldn’t quite blame him for the first few dead angels. They looked threatening, not like they were meant to help. No matter what Karkat said in his stupid rants, because, seriously, KK had never seen the fucking things.

The door clattered open and Sollux looked up to hear the soft sound of swearing and to see Karkat struggling with a plate and the door.

“Hey, douche fucks. I come bearing Pop Tarts-- Shit, is he okay?!” Karkat stepped quickly towards him, looking a little panicked.

“Uh, yeah, not too bad.” Sollux blinked once or twice, and Karkat set the plate carefully down by Eridan, who sniffed and opened his eyes, reaching out and snatching one to nibble on. Couldn’t be that fevered, then, Sollux thought.

“Okay, Captor, he looks pretty flushed. Unless the two of you suddenly declared your love and have huge sloppy makeouts while I was making your ungrateful backsides Pop Tarts--“

“Ew-w, Kar, I’m eating!” Eridan objected, and Karkat flicked his shoulder.

“Shut up and eat then. And don’t _dare_ get any crumbs in the covers. Anyway, unless that happened, it looks like in the time I was out he got a fever again.” Karkat glared at Sollux, who glared back, feeling sparks crackle.

“No, he ran to the door becauthe you tempted him with Pop Tartth, actually. And hith fever ithn’t that bad, he jutht needth to retht.” He tapped his foot, and silence fell, with the exception of the contented munching from Eridan.

Karkat narrowed his eyes, and then turned to Eridan. “Lie down once you finish that one. You need to rest even if your fever _is_ as light as the idiot claims.”

“Yeah, yeah, Kar, I will.” Eridan cuddled the plush closer as he ate, and Karkat blinked at Napoleon for a moment before dragging Sollux to a corner of the room.

“Why’s that out in the open air? What stopped that crazy nutbeast behaviour all of a sudden?” he hissed, frowning. “Did the two of you really…y’know, have sloppy makeouts?”

Sollux could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. “N-no! I put it in hith armth to get him to thettle down and thtop crying-- I, I mean, he jutht flared up and then thtarted crying, and it wath kind of the only thing that would thtop the whole ‘woe ith me, I am going to die’ thing, and…Why are you looking at me like that?”

Karkat had gone back to the narrowed eyes. Oh, shit.

“Captor, if he didn’t trust you, he would have ripped your arm messily from its socket with much snarling and gleeful posturing when you screamed. I thought that he actually didn’t trust you. But he does. And he isn’t giving you the cold shoulder either, which is what he usually does after crying in front of someone.”

Eridan was curling up and settling down, one hand creeping to snatch another Pop Tart. Sollux thought now might not be the best time to point that out.

“Tho?”

“So, either he considers the two of you friends now in his delirium, he trusts you to kill him, or you’re lying about the sloppy makeouts thing.”

“You’re fucking …” Sollux rubbed at his forehead. “Look, maybe the firtht. Maybe. But that doethn’t mean you have to drag me off to crothh quethtion me about it like thith!” He rolled his eyes and Karkat sighed heavily.

“Fine, fine. The first one. Even though he doesn’t make friends. At all. So this is really weird, and I blame you more than I blame him, just so you know- did he just sneak another fucking Pop Tart?” Karkat stormed back over, snatching it from the sneaking hand, triggering an emergence from the blanket of a ruffled and unhappy seadweller. “No. Bad. Eridan. ERIDAN, STOP HISSING AT ME. DROP THE--FUCK! Sollux! Get your useless ass over here!”

Sollux sloped over and took a look at the bruising bite mark on Karkat’s hand. “Oh, hey. He bit you.”

“Yes, genius, he bit me. Oh, hey, he bit me? Is that really all you have to contribute to the situation?!” Karkat hissed back at him. “Wow, remind me to call you whenever I need tender care.”

Sollux rolled his eyes. “You dropped my knocked out thelf down a thet of thtairth and knocked my teeth out. Forgive me if I think a bite ith a thtupid thourthe of whining.”

Karkat growled and opened his mouth to rant before they saw Eridan rubbing at his tongue with a finger.

“You taste like a mammal…” Eridan curled his lip. “Ew-w.”

Karkat rounded on him. “Oh, I’m sorry, should I try to improve my taste the next time you want a snack, you cannibalistic sack of sob stories? Should I RUB MYSELF WITH A GODDAMN FISH? PRANCE THROUGH SCENTED MEADOWS AND THEN SPRINKLE MYSELF WITH CHEESE?”

“You stole my Pop Tart!” Eridan shot back. “An’ I stole it fair and square first!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, are there _laws_ on thievery now? Am I in violation of these unknown laws? Should I get Pyrope down here so you can inform her of these laws of thievery?” Karkat snapped the Pop Tart in half and shoved both halves in his mouth. “Steal it back now, dimwit!” he hissed back through bulging cheeks.

Eridan’s eyes went wide and suddenly he began to whimper, big fat tears rolling down his face. Sollux leaned over to Karkat.

“Oh, good one. Now he’th crying again. Wow, Doctor Vantath, way to make him feel better.”

Eridan snuffled and hiccupped, while Karkat swallowed, which only seemed to make things worse. Karkat thumped his head into his hand.

“Eridan, stop it, right the fuck now. Now. Stop it. Eridan, shut up. Eridan, you’ll make yourself worse. ERIDAN. ERIDAN, STOP.”

But Eridan didn’t; Eridan carried on crying, and fuck, now Sollux felt guilty for not snatching the Pop Tart half from Karkat in a heroic endeavour to make Eridan smile.

With his psionics, of course. He wouldn’t risk being bitten himself by a ball of rage who had clearly somehow snapped.

“ED, you can’t have too many thweet thingth. It’d make you feel bad.” He reached out and patted the patch of purple hair. “Honetht. You would feel more like thhit than you do.”

Eridan’s fins folded down against his neck, and Sollux sighed. “Yeah. Now apologithe to KK for biting him. That wath nathty, okay?”

Eridan mumbled a small ‘sorry’, and Sollux turned around to Karkat with a shrug, before tucking the blanket back around Eridan, patting his head awkwardly and taking away the tray of Pop Tarts.

“How the fuck did you even get him to apologise?” Karkat asked him in a low voice as they ate the remaining Pop Tarts in a corner five minutes later.

“I’ll tell you when you tell me why you had a tantrum when I already have to deal with fithhbutt’th rage.” Sollux licked his lips. “Though, thethe aren’t too bad.”

“Well, I ran into Kanaya and Rose who threatened me to keep him in line or there would be a short chainsaw sound and my life would be no more. They basically did the whole…ugh, I forget the human term. Something to do with a sports lusus. I got given a list of how to take care of Eridan and what he wasn’t allowed too much of, and tomorrow I have to try him with some sort of fish mousse stuff which Kanaya will be making. I also got told that if he’s unhappy, I have to make him happy. And then Rose told me that she is going to get me a bunch of new books to give to him, and…Just, look.” He handed over a neatly written list about as tall as himself when they unfolded it.

“Ah. Tho you…Got attacked by hith momth.” Sollux snickered, and Karkat groaned.

“I don’t dare go to see his lusus. His lusus is probably going to disagree with this and then come up here and tell Eridan to get the fuck out of bed or something. Which Eridan will then do and maybe die or some shit. And then I see him sicker than I last saw him, and then you tell me it’s my fault …”

Ah, that made sense. Sollux licked a smear of icing from his fingers. “Jutht tell FF to go and deal with it if that happenth. Hith luthuth might catch hith illnethh. FF can tell him to fuck off.”

Karkat groaned and looked over at Eridan who was soundly asleep again. “Yeah. At least he’s napping and not tiring himself out at all. I’m kind of glad you volunteered now, you know? Two people are better than one at taking care of him, and when Gamzee gets taken down here, you can continue with the prince and I will take care of my idiot moirail--“

“Who you completely adore.”

“Naturally. It’s breaking my heart having to take care of my friend and see my moirail get sicker, but I can’t risk him catching the same thing as Eridan. Indigos and violets have more in common than people think, and we still don’t quite know everything because none of us finished educating ourselves about everything. I sometimes wish we’d been older before we went into the game.” Karkat sighed. “If you had a moirail, you’d understand. Actually, Kanaya should understand, but she’s too worried about Eridan. She wants to fuss over him, but she can’t risk giving it to Rose, because we don’t know if the humans can catch it. A few minutes of me with Rose won’t do jack shit, hopefully, but…Kanaya spends a lot of time with her. Which I don’t, because Rose is not my matesprit, and is also creepy and analytical. I don’t like being told what I’m thinking by her.” Karkat sighed, and looked away. “I also have to keep my distance from the rest of that idiot lot. I’d be more worried if Equius wasn’t keeping Nepeta away from the vents. He’s a sweaty bundle of idiotic, but he’s smart about this sort of thing.”

Sollux looked over to the small bundle in the bed. “He causes a lot of trouble for someone so…tiny.”

“He’ll be taller than you one day, but that day is…a long way off. So yeah. He does. A lot of trouble, but…Y’know, the asshole’s alright.” Karkat sighed and pulled out a small flask, sipping from it and making a face.

“What you got in there?”

“Strider’s cold coffee with a dash of Coca Cola hell-mix.” Karkat grimaced. “I need to help keep watch over him with you tonight. He’s not going to be a heavy sleeper if this fever gets worse.”

Sollux opened his mouth, before holding his hand out for the little flask.

**Author's Note:**

> New chapter coming soon


End file.
